Ryan Yoo, better known as boylife, is an incredibly hardworking and mysterious figure. Over the past year, the Brooklyn-based artist has been busy playing arenas with keshi and leaking his own music on vinyl. He also rolled out his first official release in nearly four years. Though his new album, jones, is so densely textured that it’s obviously the work of a keen producer, there's an admirable humility in the sheer number of friends Yoo brought along, despite his capacity to do everything by his lonesome. Heavy hitters and deep heads alike are peppered throughout an idiosyncratic R&B record that is as warm as it is forward-thinking. You can read our chat below. jones is out now.

These new songs will be the first music that you’ve widely released in four years. How are you feeling? What do you hope the response will be?

boylife: I’m healthy and alive! Making art is a privilege. Having anyone take the time to hear it is a privilege. I’m humbled by any response at all.

How did you link with Porches for “nada,” the new single?

Aaron and I hung out in Chinatown in NYC a while ago. I’m a big Porches fan, “Country” is a top ten song for me. When I hit him about singing on “nada,” he was deep in the process of making Shirt (I love this album, please link it here somewhere) but generously took the time to lay his verse down for the song. He made two verses, actually. I couldn’t say no to either, so I used them both—one on the limited edition vinyl and the other on streaming.

The record has a varied list of contributors, from Phoebe Bridgers’ guitarist Harrison Whitford to Roy Blair. Is it a conscious choice to bring together people from different worlds?

The album credits are a record of my efforts to pair each song with minds who could imagine something that I never would. It’s all people that I respect highly as musicians and count as friends. Listening back to the album is always sweet because I can hear people I cherish on every song. I’m not thinking about the novelty of any given pairing, it’s always a sincere attempt to serve the music. There were other people I wanted on the record that we couldn’t get, though … Willie Nelson is my white whale.

You’re also a producer—what’s the benefit to looping in friends like Nick Velez? What do you love about collaboration?

Nick is a genius. Our friend Daniel Chae, who engineered and mixed the album, completes the jones trifecta. When you can dig in with the same people over an extended period of time, collaborating both raises the ceiling of the work and increases the ground velocity. Nick and Daniel are incredible at their respective crafts and I’m honored to have had them contribute to my world. It’s also just way more fun having people with you—the writing and recording process can get kind of sad and lonely when I go it alone.

You cited some wild sources of inspiration for your debut full-length gelato—The Shaggs, Avril Lavigne, M.I.A., Daniel Johnston, and more. What tracks were on the jones reference playlist?

In contrast to the breadth I strove for on gelato, jones was about narrowing down, honing in. The jones inspo playlist is essentially all reggae, especially lovers rock and rocksteady. While we were making the album, I was frequenting some hifi/audiophile stores in New York that were always spinning reggae. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing—the bass, the texture of the recordings, the melodies. I fell in love. Reggae is largely an engineer-driven genre as opposed to an artist-oriented one; I love everything that came out of Studio One or had Coxsone Dodd on the boards. And of course Lee Perry, Scientist, the usual suspects. Amongst artists, I’m partial to Alton Ellis, Sugar Minott, The Maytones, Marcia Griffiths, Bob Marley, Ken Boothe, Junior Byles, Susan Cadogan, and others. Almost all of the big ideas I absorbed and put into this record, I learned from listening to reggae.

Can you break down the custom guitar you took with you on the keshi tour? Who made it?

It was made by a feller in Washington, just a guy who makes a guitar every one or two years for fun. It’s a riff on an existing guitar by a company called Ronin. It’s got some odd pickups that allow for a wide variety of sounds and also has a contact microphone built into it. It’s responsible for most of the guitar tones and some drum sounds on jones. It’s also got a badge from a Hamilton Beach vibrator from the 1920s on the headstock, it says “New Life Vibrator.” This was how I learned that vibrators have been around that long.

How does your relationship to your artist name change as you age? Are you in touch with your inner child?

I don’t know yet, I still feel like a kid. I also feel like I’m 65 years old. I don’t know how to answer this question, I’m really sorry. I might have to change the name now because of you.

You told MTV Asia that the only video game you play is Super Smash Bros. Who’s your favorite character?

It’s true, Smash is the only game I play. You can make these customizable characters called Mii Fighters, so I made one of Timothee Chalamet. He’s awful, I never play as him. Also, word is that Anthony Fantano is incredible at the game, so I challenged him to a duel (he never responded, but the challenge still stands, Anthony).

What’s the most important item on your rider?

My rider is:

-Water

So I’ll have to go with water.